Andi Watson
Encyclopedia
Andrew "Andi" Watson is a British
cartoonist
and illustrator
best known for the graphic novel
s Breakfast After Noon, Slow News Day and his series Love Fights, published by Oni Press
and Slave Labor Graphics
.
Watson has also worked for more mainstream American comic publishers with some work at DC Comics
, a twelve-issue limited series at Marvel Comics
, with the majority at Dark Horse Comics
, moving recently to Image Comics
.
by working class
parents. He studied foundation art at Dewsbury
college followed by a graphic design
/ illustration
course at Liverpool Polytechnic
(now Liverpool John Moores University
). He currently lives in Stoke-on-Trent
.
comic Samurai Jam along with t-shirts and bubble-gum cards. The comic was rooted in skateboarding
and punk rock
culture and artistically influenced by Japanese Manga
, specifically Akira
, and the American alternative comic
Love and Rockets
. Three issues were produced by 1993, photocopied with covers spray-painted with a stencil, which generated some interest within the British small press comics
scene.
Watson approached various American publishers and was taken on by Dan Vado
of Slave Labor Graphics
in 1993
who published four issues of Samurai Jam. These were not a success, due in part to the wildly different art styles Watson employed with each issue, but Vado kept the door open and Watson returned in 1995
with Skeleton Key
, a monthly 16-page comic that ran for 30 issues and cemented his reputation.
After Skeleton Key Watson moved to Oni Press
with Geisha, a graphic novel about a robot girl artist. Rather than approach the issue of her being a robot Watson used the story to examine the ideas of fake and real. The book was an artistic bridge for Watson between the manga-inspired Skeleton Key and his current, more European, style.
, but retaining the slow pacing of long-form Manga
. This came to fruition with Breakfast After Noon, a "slice of life" story set in the industrial city of Stoke-on-Trent
in Britain
. This was followed by the novella Dumped, a love story produced in association with the BIG festival in Turin
.
Watson returned to Slave Labor
in 2002 with Slow News Day, a graphic novel set around a small town British newspaper which dealt with English attitudes to Americans and the theme of big versus small audience.
He followed that with a one-shot featuring the fox spirit Kitsune from his earlier series Skeleton Key, this time in a tale set in medieval Japan, scripted by Woodrow Phoenix
.
His current work is the romantic comedy series Love Fights published by Oni
along with Paris, a limited series
for Slave Labor
scripted by Watson with art by Simon Gane. Recent solo work, like Glister and Princess At Midnight, has been published at Image Comics
.
comics from Dark Horse Comics
and Marvel Comics
' Namor.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
best known for the graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
s Breakfast After Noon, Slow News Day and his series Love Fights, published by Oni Press
Oni Press
Oni Press is an American independent comic book publisher based in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1997 by Bob Schreck and Joe Nozemack with the goal of publishing the kinds of comics and graphic novels they themselves would want to read...
and Slave Labor Graphics
Slave Labor Graphics
Slave Labor Graphics is an independent American comic book publisher, well-known for publishing darkly humorous, offbeat comics.-Company history:...
.
Watson has also worked for more mainstream American comic publishers with some work at DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, a twelve-issue limited series at Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
, with the majority at Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
, moving recently to Image Comics
Image Comics
Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
.
Biography
Andi Watson was born in the Wakefield Infirmary and raised in Kippax, West YorkshireKippax, West Yorkshire
Kippax is a village and civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England. It is situated in the east of the city, near to Garforth and Great Preston....
by working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
parents. He studied foundation art at Dewsbury
Dewsbury
Dewsbury is a minster town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Huddersfield and south of Leeds...
college followed by a graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
/ illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
course at Liverpool Polytechnic
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...
(now Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...
). He currently lives in Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
.
Early works
For his final degree show Watson produced the small pressBritish small press comics
British small press comics, once known as stripzines, are comic books self-published by amateur cartoonists and comic book creators, usually in short print runs, in the UK. A "small press comic" is essentially a zine composed predominantly of comic strips. The term emerged in the early 1980s to...
comic Samurai Jam along with t-shirts and bubble-gum cards. The comic was rooted in skateboarding
Skateboarding
Skateboarding is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard.Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an art form, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report...
and punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
culture and artistically influenced by Japanese Manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
, specifically Akira
Akira (film)
is a 1988 Japanese animated cyberpunk science fiction film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto, and starring the voices of Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama and Taro Ishida. The screenplay is based on Otomo's manga Akira....
, and the American alternative comic
Alternative comics
Alternative comics defines a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to "mainstream" superhero comics which in the past have dominated the US comic book industry...
Love and Rockets
Love and Rockets (comics)
Love and Rockets is a black and white comic book series by Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez, sometimes cited jointly as Los Bros Hernandez. Their brother Mario Hernandez is an occasional contributor...
. Three issues were produced by 1993, photocopied with covers spray-painted with a stencil, which generated some interest within the British small press comics
British small press comics
British small press comics, once known as stripzines, are comic books self-published by amateur cartoonists and comic book creators, usually in short print runs, in the UK. A "small press comic" is essentially a zine composed predominantly of comic strips. The term emerged in the early 1980s to...
scene.
Watson approached various American publishers and was taken on by Dan Vado
Dan Vado
Dan Vado is a comic book publisher and writer, and a fixture of the independent comics community. Vado is the owner, president, and publisher of Slave Labor Graphics.-Biography:...
of Slave Labor Graphics
Slave Labor Graphics
Slave Labor Graphics is an independent American comic book publisher, well-known for publishing darkly humorous, offbeat comics.-Company history:...
in 1993
1993 in comics
-January:* Doom Patrol #63: " The Empire of Chairs," Grant Morrison's final issue as Doom Patrol writer.-February:* Action Comics, with issue #686, suspends publication following "The Death of Superman."...
who published four issues of Samurai Jam. These were not a success, due in part to the wildly different art styles Watson employed with each issue, but Vado kept the door open and Watson returned in 1995
1995 in comics
-January:*After Xavier: The Age of Apocalypse is launched. All X-titles change to different names for the next four months.* Thor marks his 400th appearance in Marvel Comics with issue #482....
with Skeleton Key
Skeleton Key (comics)
Skeleton Key is the title of a comic book by British author Andi Watson. It was published beginning in 1995 by Slave Labor Graphics and was Watson's first monthly comic. Skeleton Key ran for 30 issues and a number of supplemental stories and was generally well-received...
, a monthly 16-page comic that ran for 30 issues and cemented his reputation.
After Skeleton Key Watson moved to Oni Press
Oni Press
Oni Press is an American independent comic book publisher based in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1997 by Bob Schreck and Joe Nozemack with the goal of publishing the kinds of comics and graphic novels they themselves would want to read...
with Geisha, a graphic novel about a robot girl artist. Rather than approach the issue of her being a robot Watson used the story to examine the ideas of fake and real. The book was an artistic bridge for Watson between the manga-inspired Skeleton Key and his current, more European, style.
Later works
The Geisha one-shot comic marked a dramatic shift in Watson's style, bringing in stylistic influences from European creators such as François Avril and Dupuy and BerberianDupuy and Berberian
Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian are French cartoonists most famous for their series of Franco-Belgian comics albums featuring the character Monsieur Jean....
, but retaining the slow pacing of long-form Manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
. This came to fruition with Breakfast After Noon, a "slice of life" story set in the industrial city of Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
in Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. This was followed by the novella Dumped, a love story produced in association with the BIG festival in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
.
Watson returned to Slave Labor
Slave Labor Graphics
Slave Labor Graphics is an independent American comic book publisher, well-known for publishing darkly humorous, offbeat comics.-Company history:...
in 2002 with Slow News Day, a graphic novel set around a small town British newspaper which dealt with English attitudes to Americans and the theme of big versus small audience.
He followed that with a one-shot featuring the fox spirit Kitsune from his earlier series Skeleton Key, this time in a tale set in medieval Japan, scripted by Woodrow Phoenix
Woodrow Phoenix
Woodrow Phoenix is a British comics artist, writer, editorial illustrator, graphic designer, font designer and author of children's books.He was a contributor to a number of British comics magazines including Escape, Blaaam! and Blast! and was part of the British small press comics scene in the...
.
His current work is the romantic comedy series Love Fights published by Oni
Oni Press
Oni Press is an American independent comic book publisher based in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1997 by Bob Schreck and Joe Nozemack with the goal of publishing the kinds of comics and graphic novels they themselves would want to read...
along with Paris, a limited series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
for Slave Labor
Slave Labor Graphics
Slave Labor Graphics is an independent American comic book publisher, well-known for publishing darkly humorous, offbeat comics.-Company history:...
scripted by Watson with art by Simon Gane. Recent solo work, like Glister and Princess At Midnight, has been published at Image Comics
Image Comics
Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
.
Work for hire
Andi Watson has worked as the writer on a variety of licensed properties, most significantly a 2 year run on the first Buffy the Vampire SlayerBuffy comics
Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics refer to comic books based on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While many of these comics were published when the television show was on air they are not all considered canonical and often deal with characters who do not appear on in the television...
comics from Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
and Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
' Namor.
External links
- Andi Watson at Oni Press
- Andi Watson at Marvel.com
- Preview of Paris at Slave Labor Graphics